Friday, June 16th

World Cup Day!!! We are up early to catch a train at 8am to the main Zurich train station. From Zurich we catch a train to Stuttgart, Germany. We need to get reservations for our return trip tonight, but since it�s before 8 o�clock the ticket counter is closed. The train to Zurich is short and over in about 25 minutes. We only have about 5-10 minutes to catch our train to Stuttgart, but it ends up only about 5 tracks away so it�s easy to find.

The train to Stuttgart is over 3 hours so we have plenty of time to read or catch up on some sleep. The train is a much newer model. Many of the seats are like a plane in that they don�t face each other. The seats also have mini-TVs but don�t seem to do anything but play a German advertisement about the train system. We are in the front car so we can see the conductors through the glass door.

There are a number of stops on the trip to Stuttgart. The city of Basel has two parts to it, one in Switzerland, and one in Germany. On the crossover into Germany, once again, we don�t get our passports checked at all. At this point I�m resigned to the fact that I won�t be getting a single stamp on the trip except maybe a return stamp when we get back in the U.S. There are a few small towns that we pass in Germany that might be interesting to visit. Castles always stand out because they are usually high on a hill in order to make them less accessible and harder to attack.

When we arrive in Stuttgart the first impression off the train is ORANGE and madhouse. The train station is very busy. Both the Netherlands and Ivory Coast wear orange jerseys, so all of the supporters are decked out in orange outfits. In the Metro station below the train station we can here the fans singing. Many of the Dutch fans have on orange overalls with an orange tail sticking out the back. The Dutch symbol on the uniforms is a lion, so that�s the connection.

Earl isn�t going to the game so he needs to find out how to get to the Porsche museum. There are information kiosks in the train station provided for the World Cup. Earl finds a helpful guy who speaks English and tells him exactly what train and bus to take to get to the museum. While Earl is getting his information Mark and I head over to the ticket office in order to get reservations for tonight�s train back to Luzern.

We say goodbye to Earl, and just follow the hoard of orange leaving the train station. The crowd is moving towards the main square of Stuttgart. Each city in Germany, where the matches are held, has a fan fest area in the cities main square. From the train station there is a wide pedestrian street leading to the fan fest area.

There is a lot of picture taking going on with various people posing with outrageously dressed Dutch supporters. I�ve brought an old film camera today, since I wasn�t sure about getting my good camera into the stadium. But, like a total idiot, I forgot to load the camera with film and didn�t bring any extra rolls of film. You would think that with all the pictures I�ve been taking I would at least have the sense to put film in the camera. Everyone else has a small digital camera so I can�t borrow any film. My frustration rises to the point that if I don�t get any film it will probably ruin the day from my perspective. I am now on a mission to find some film.

As we walk down the main street there are outdoor tables situated up and down the street. Dutch supporters dominate the area. It�s only about 12:30 but you can tell that quite a few people have been drinking for a while. Almost any shop, department store, snack shop, or clothing store is selling beer at the entrance to their store. The bad thing about the beer they are selling is that it�s straight out of a warm case. There is no refrigeration or icing down of the beer that is being sold.

My other goal before the match is to find an Ivory Coast jersey. I�m rooting for the Ivory Coast because my first big time soccer match that I saw was at Stamford Bridge in Chelsea, England just outside London. The player Didier Drogba, who is on the Ivory Coast team, plays for Chelsea FC. So I�ve chosen to support his team even though there�s another player from Chelsea on the Dutch team (but Arjen Robben is a faker). So besides the film I�m also trying to find an Ivory Coast jersey. As we walk through the stores it turns out to be harder then I thought. I guess there just isn�t enough interest in the Ivory Coast. There are plenty of Dutch jerseys.

Still no film to be found, and now everyone is hungry so we need to find a place to eat. We have to go off the main street because it�s so crowded in order to find a place to sit down. There�s a park near the fan fest area where we find a small caf�. Luckily they still have some food left. We all get a sandwich and a beer. In the park there are all manner of fans lying around. It looks like some of them might have been sleeping there for quite a while. You never know when someone might have arrived in town so the supporters could have been there since last night or early this morning (or just passed out from being drunk).

After we eat I tell the guys I have to find a place to get film before I do anything else. They are all nice about it. Luckily, when we get back to the main pedestrian street I find a camera store right away. Now that I have film in the camera I�m happy and we can move on to the fan fest area.

We walk over to the main square of Stuttgart, which ends up only being around a half mile from the main train station. The fan fest area is packed with people, mostly Dutch fans. The area is gated, with security watching everyone going in and out. There are 3 huge TV screens showing pictures of the area. They are selling beer and food inside the fan fest area. We all get a beer and walk around enjoying the atmosphere. Mark makes the observation that we all are coming to understand; the Dutch are a tall group of people.

Before we know it, it�s time to start heading over to the stadium. I get a map and ask one of the information assistants at a booth for the best way to walk over to the stadium. The stadium is a couple miles away, so we should get to the game about an hour before the game starts. There is a large park that will take us all the way to the bridge we will need to cross to get to the stadium.

The walk is pretty leisurely. There aren�t that many people in the park. About halfway through the park we get a beer at a refreshment stand. There are a few fans here and there as we walk through the park. We get to another refreshment stand and stop to watch the current World Cup match that is on TV.

There are a couple of Dutch fans watching the match. When one of the guys hears us talking, he asks us where we are from and what brought us to the match. We find out that he goes to Chicago a lot, to �Hamburger U�, as he calls it. He runs a number of McDonalds in the Netherlands, and has to make trips to Chicago. It�s a pretty small world after all. Mark starts debating soccer with the guys.

As we are sitting at the refreshment stand, we start to hear cheering coming from the direction we had walked. Once we get up and look back, we can see Dutch fans marching through the park. The orange hoard so to speak. The police are giving them an escort through the park to the stadium. It�s probably better for the city to give the fans a police escort, instead of them spilling into all of the streets between the fan fest area and the stadium. We start walking again so we don�t get caught behind the orange hoard. The fans keep up the cheering all the way to the stadium. In the parking lots the fans finally break apart, as fans go to different entrances of the stadium. There is a little tailgating going on in the parking lot.

The whole stadium is fenced in for what looks like an extra level of security. We are patted down as we go through security. Our souvenir cups, which Jim has in his knapsack, are confiscated. Mark has some extra batteries for his digital camera, which security also confiscates. Mark switches them in order to make sure that his camera will have enough juice for the match. Security doesn�t really check our tickets other then to make sure we have one.

Once inside security we have to walk around to the other side of the stadium before we can go in the ticket gate. Everything is color coated to help provide fans an easier way to find where they need to go. The organization committee even had trains, and buses color coated in order to try and disperse the crowd over the transportation system. The tickets have an embedded sensor, so at the ticket gate we only have to hold the ticket up to ticket reader.

I would like to get the Ivory Coast jersey but once we get up to the merchandise stand I realize that the merchandising is very lacking in quality and quantity. We decide to get a beer and check out our seats. Even over here in Germany, Budweiser is the main beer sponsor. Luckily, there is a German beer that is being served. The only problem with getting a beer is that they don�t have lines setup. Everyone is just crowded around the stand squeezing in to get beer.

Our seats are in the corner but high enough that we can see the far end of the pitch (soccer term for field). The problem with the Stuttgart stadium is the track that surrounds the pitch. The seats are farther away from the pitch then a traditional soccer stadium because of the track. Most of the seats are still empty. It looks like we are in a diverse section. There aren�t a lot of Dutch fans in our section.

I can�t find an Ivory Coast jersey to speak of, so I Mark, Jim, and Chuck walk around the stadium with me to see if there are any for sale in the stadium. No luck on the jersey, but we did finally see a few Ivory Coast fans. I need to get something for Allison and Eve. I�m a little leery of the sizes because I�ve been getting much bigger sizes here in Europe, but I find a couple they might like. Chuck gets a German team jersey.

We walk back towards our seats. We are ready for another beer, but it looks like one huge mob of people without any lines at the beer stand. There is absolutely no organization or order for getting a beer. Jim braves the line, I drop my stuff off at our seats, and go back to help him get the beer. In about 20 minutes, we get back to the seats, and the match has already started.

So here we are finally! The original reason for the trip has finally started. The Dutch fans are going crazy. The sections filled with Dutch fans seem to have everyone standing. There is one guy in our section who thought about standing the whole time but he was pressured into sitting down. We are happy that he sat down, because he is only two rows in front of us.

The match turns out to be pretty good. The Dutch come out attacking from the beginning. The Ivory Coast is an attacking team so it�s fun to watch. The Dutch go up halfway through the first half 2-0 in the matter of 3 minutes. The player I�m cheering for, Didier Drogba, scores about 12 minutes later so I�m happy. The score stays 2-1, with many attempts by the Ivory Coast in the second half.

We get up and out quickly to avoid the crowd leaving the stadium. We have to get back to the train station to catch the train. There are a number of cabs, so we hop in a cab to make sure we get back in time. It takes about 10 minutes to get back to the train station. Jim and Chuck go to find Earl. I decide to get some food at Burger King. I forget to ask for ice so the Coke is warm. Remember! No ice in Europe.

We find the train and our seats. We are happy that we got reservations for seats because the train is packed. We are in 2nd class for this train so there�s not as much room as we had coming to Stuttgart. People are in our seats so we have to kick them out. Most of the people on the train are soccer fans. We have about an hour and a half before we have to switch trains in Basel. We are all pretty tired so the trip goes fairly quickly. We still have to make sure we get off at the right stop. The train we get on in Basel is a nice Swiss train and we even have our own compartment for the trip back to Luzern.

Back in Luzern, we head back to the hotel and call it a day. It�s our last day tomorrow; we will be staying in Luzern and relaxing. The U.S. plays Italy tomorrow night so we are looking forward to the match. The World Cup match today was a lot of fun and well worth the trip.

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